African Kingdoms

East Africa

Kingdom of Dotawo (Nubia)c.AD 900 - c.1504

Dotawo was a small
African kingdom in
the Beja region of southern Nubia
with a capital at Dau (modern Djabel-Adda). The name meant 'lower Dau'.
Throughout much of its lifetime it was obscure and poorly recorded, and
some even doubt it existed at all. Its beginnings and first two centuries
of existence are almost completely opaque. It was one of a group of Nubian
kingdoms that emerged in the centuries after the fall of the
Kushite kingdom which had
dominated the region from 785 BC to AD 350. The main kingdoms, all three
of which emerged before Dotawo, were
Makuria,
Nobatia, and
Alodia in the south. The
latter was probably Dotawo's main rival, but the discovery of a large
collection of documents at Qasr Ibrim in the 1960s not only proved Dotawo's
existence, they showed that Dotawo had many dealings with Nobatia.

c.1144

Moses George is the earliest of Dotawo's kings to have been recorded, making
its earlier existence as an independent entity somewhat dubious. Another
factor influencing the uncertainty about Dotawo's existence is the apparent
congruence in names and dates between
Makuria and Dotawo. It is possible
that Dotawo is merely a colony of Makuria, with the same kings recorded by
different sources and with different spellings and pronunciations. Names
that do not match could be governors of Dotawo, mixed in accidentally or
uncaringly with the names of royalty. Or they could be vassal rulers, as the
Baja region is apparently home to thirteen lesser kings under one 'great
king', a form of organisation far better attested to in ancient
Britain
and Ireland.

To the north,
Makuria enters a sharp decline, due in part to increased Bedouin attacks
after these tribes have been pushed south by the
Ayyubids. Cities have to be
defended by new walls, buildings are made stronger, and some settlements are
moved to more defendable locations. It takes time for the
Arabs to reach
southern Nubia.

The Nubian mountains in the south were the last bolt-hole for
Christian black Nubians and escaped slaves following the Islamic
takeover of the rest of the country

The Christian names of the previous sequence of rulers is suddenly replaced
by a much more Arabic tone, suggesting that incoming
Arabs have now
filtered this far south and have had a noticeable impact upon the kingdom.
An alternative possibility is that surviving record-keeping in Nubia is now
handled by Arabic speakers alone.
Increased aggression from
Egypt and internal discord soon leads to the fading and collapse of
Makuria, so is this the point where its kings, possibly also those of
Dotawo, find a final refuge in Dau?

fl c.1327

Saba-Nol

fl c.1334

Siti

fl c.1397

Nasr

fl c.1410

Eltey

fl c.1430

Siti

fl c.1460

Qudlaniel

c.1480

Nubia has already witnessed the gradual penetration of small Arabic groups
moving southwards from
Egypt
with their families. Now they form into a confederation under Abdullah Jamma
and capture the Nubian kingdom of
Alodia, taking its capital at Soba. There,
Abdullah forms the short-lived
Abdallab
empire. Dotawo is now apparently the last remaining Christian kingdom in
Nubia.

fl c.1484

Djoel

1504

The kingdom, probably already weakened by the
Abdallab
empire, is conquered by the
Funj
sultanate of Sinnar at an unknown point after this date, probably not very
far after it.